As the use of hand-held communication devices such as smart telephones and cellular telephones continues to grow, so too does the potential for disruptive notifications from such devices. For example, a ring tone sounding during a meeting or conversation is disruptive to all those involved in the meeting or conversation. Under various prior art approaches, ring tones may be replaced by vibration alerts to reduce the likelihood of a call notification being disruptive. Vibration alerts, however, may not help to identify the source of the incoming call or other communication. Such identification may still disadvantageously require a visual inspection of the device, which can be inconvenient and embarrassing, and may in fact be impossible, for example in the case of a visually impaired user.